Cranial Nerve I

Abstract

This unit presents the basic protocol for imaging cranial nerve I. The olfactory bulbs and tracts mediate the sense of smell from the nasal cavity to the brain. Unfortunately they are located in a precarious position for MR imaging, above the air-filled nasal cavity and ethmoid sinuses at a bone-air-soft tissue interface. This creates problems with susceptibility artifact. This issue, plus the very small size of the structures to be studied and the superimposed eye motion artifact makes imaging of the olfactory system a technical challenge.